CLEVELAND — As Ohio welcomes a new leader to fight human trafficking in the state, Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to sign legislation that will allow survivors of human trafficking who may also have criminal records to have those records expunged.
Senate Bill 214 gives human trafficking survivors the ability to apply for record expungement if they are convicted of a misdemeanor, fourth-degree felony, or fifth-degree felony committed while being trafficked. The legislation passed unanimously in the State Senate and 97-1 in the House.
"We wanted everyone who has been a victim of trafficking to have access to the same ... restart of life," state Sen. Stephanie Kunze (R-Hilliard), the primary sponsor of the legislation, said.
SB 214 builds on another state law that allows offenses like soliciting, loitering, and prostitution to be expunged but did not help survivors like Natasha Cooper, who now works as a victim advocate.
"I have multiple felonies that I received during my exploitation," Cooper testified during an April Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill. "How could the state that asked for my testimony to convict my trafficker withhold an expungement from me?"
Under prior law, a survivor needed to be convicted of soliciting, loitering to engage in solicitation, or prostitution to be eligible for expungement. According to Kunze's office, SB 214 adds a new provision "that expands the pool of eligible expungement applicants by also allowing a survivor to apply for expungement of any misdemeanor or low-grade felony, if the survivor's participation in the crime was a result of them being a survivor of human trafficking."
Survivors will need to provide evidence that the crime they are seeking to have expunged was committed as a result of surviving human trafficking. Expungements will be at a judge's discretion.
"Obviously, we don't want people who weren't truly victimized and are serious offenders of other crimes having access to this," Kunze added. "We really want this to be for survivors who are rebuilding their lives and committed crimes based on the result of being trafficked."
Kirsti Mouncey, president and CEO of the Collaborative to End Human Trafficking, provided proponent testimony SB 214. She says survivors with a criminal record as a result of being trafficked are consistently reminded of their trauma.
"Imagine that you apply for a job and every time your criminal record comes up, a criminal record that you really did not accumulate yourself, that was forced upon you," Mouncey said.
Mouncey believes SB 214 will help survivors of human trafficking lead productive lives.
"We hear from survivors that this is huge and that they feel heard and seen and valued," she shared. "As a society, we really want to support them in that long term recovery."
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, since 2007, they have identified 3,102 cases of human trafficking in Ohio targeting 6,013 total victims.
Thursday morning, Ohio's Department of Public Safety announced Kelli Cary will lead the anti-human trafficking efforts of DeWine's Human Trafficking Task Force. According to a release from the state, Cary was formerly the CEO of Ancora TN, which combats human trafficking in central Tennessee. She also served in jobs at RAHAB Ministries, the Hope & Healing Survivor Resource, and the Salvation Army.